Marian Solidarity

In his intimate life, God “is love,” the essential love shared by the three divine Persons: personal love is the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Therefore he “searches even the depths of God,” as uncreated Love-Gift. It can be said that in the Holy Spirit the intimate life of the Triune God becomes totally gift, an exchange of mutual love between the divine Persons and that through the Holy Spirit God exists in the mode of gift. It is the Holy Spirit who is the personal expression of this self-giving, of this being-love. He is Person- Love. He is Person-Gift Here we have an inexhaustible treasure of the reality and an inexpressible deepening of the concept of person in God, which only divine Revelation makes known to us.

At the same time, the Holy Spirit, being consubstantial with the Father and the Son in divinity, is love and uncreated gift from which derives as from its source (fons vivus) all giving of gifts vis-a-vis creatures (created gift): the gift of existence to all things through creation; the gift of grace to human beings through the whole economy of salvation. As the Apostle Paul writes: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to US.”

an excerpt from Dominum et vivificantem (On the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church
and the World) by Ioannes Paulus PP. II

“To us a child is born, to us a son is given” (Is 9:5).

Today the mystery of Christmas is renewed: this Child who brings salvation to the world is also born for the men and women of our own time, bringing joy and peace for all. We approach the crib with emotion; together with Mary we go to meet the Long-Awaited of the Nations, the Redeemer of humanity.

“Cum Maria contemplemur Christi vultum.”
With Mary let us contemplate the face of Christ: in that Child, wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in the manger (cf. Lk 2:7), it is God himself who comes to visit us, to guide our feet in the way of peace (cf. Lk 1:79). Mary watches him, caresses him and keeps him warm, pondering the meaning of the wondrous signs which surround the mystery of Christmas.

Christmas is a mystery of joy!

The Angels sang in the night: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased” (Lk 2:14). To the shepherds they described the event as “a great joy for all the people” (cf. Lk 2:10). Joy, despite distance from home, the poverty of the manger, people’s indifference, the hostility of power.

A mystery of joy nonetheless, for in the City of David “to you is born this day a Saviour” (Lk 2:11). The Church shares in this same joy, surrounded today by the light of the Son of God: the darkness can never obscure it. It is the glory of the Eternal Word, who out of love has become one of us.

Christmas is a mystery of love!

The love of the Father, who has sent into the world his only-begotten Son, to bestow on us the gift of his own life (cf. 1 Jn 4:8-9). The love of “God-with-us”, Emmanuel, who came to earth in order to die on the Cross. In the cold stable, wrapped in silence, the Virgin Mother, with prophetic intuition, already tastes the violent drama of Calvary, the traumatic struggle between darkness and light, between death and life, between hatred and love. The Prince of Peace, born today in Bethlehem, will give his life on Golgotha, so that love may reign on earth.

Christmas is a mystery of peace!

From the cave of Bethlehem there rises today an urgent appeal to the world not to yield to mistrust, suspicion and discouragement, even though the tragic reality of terrorism feeds uncertainties and fears. Believers of all religions, together with men and women of good will, by outlawing all forms of intolerance and discrimination, are called to build peace: in the Holy Land, above all, to put an end once and for all to the senseless spiral of blind violence, and in the Middle East, to extinguish the ominous smouldering of a conflict which, with the joint efforts of all, can be avoided; in Africa too, where devastating famines and tragic internal conflicts are aggravating the already precarious conditions of entire peoples, although here and there signs of hope are present; in Latin America, in Asia, in other parts of the world, where political, economic and social crises disturb the serenity of many families and nations. May humanity accept the Christmas message of peace!

Adorable mystery of the Incarnate Word!
Together with you, O Virgin Mother, may we stop and reflect at the manger where the Child lies, to share your own amazement at the immense “condescension” of God. Grant us your own eyes, O Mary, that we may understand the mystery hidden within the frail limbs of your Son. Teach us to recognize his face in the children of every race and culture. Help us to be credible witnesses of his message of peace and love, so that the men and women of our own time, still torn by conflicts and unspeakable violence, may also recognize in the Child cradled in your arms the one Saviour of the world, the endless source of that true peace for which every heart profoundly yearns.

from an Urbi et Orbi Message of Pope John Paul II, 2002

My hope is that the Good News of Christ will enter every home and help families to rediscover that only in Christ can man find salvation. In Him it is possible to find the interior peace, hope and strength necessary to face life’s various situations each day, even those most onerous and difficult. He is the Word of God who even today continues to shed light on man’s path; his actions are the expression of the Father’s love for every human being.

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favour from the Lord. (Is 61:12).

In the synagogue of Nazareth, at the moment of beginning his public ministry, Christ will apply these words of the prophet Isaiah to himself. Today he repeats them for us during this liturgical assembly, and in repeating them he invites us to rejoice again with the words of Isaiah: “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul; for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice” (Is 61:10).

The Lord Jesus is at hand at every moment of our life. He is at hand if we consider him in the perspective of Christmas, but he is also at hand if we look at him on the banks of the Jordan when he officially receives his messianic mission from the Father; lastly, he is at hand in the perspective of his return at the end of time.

Christ is at hand! He comes by virtue of the Holy Spirit to announce the Good News; he comes to cure and to set free to proclaim a time of grace and salvation, in order to begin, already on the night of Bethlehem, the work of the world’s redemption.

Let us therefore rejoice and exult! The Lord is at hand; he is coming to save us.

Amen!

An excerpt from “Rejoice, the Lord is Near” – preached by Pope John Paul II at the Roman parish of Our Lady of Valme on Sunday, 15 December 1996, the Third Sunday of Advent.

With today’s first Sunday of Advent, a new liturgical year begins. The Church takes up her journey again, and invites us to reflect more intensely on the mystery of Christ, a mystery that is always new and that time cannot exhaust. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Thanks to him, the history of humanity proceeds as a pilgrimage toward the fulfilment of the Kingdom which he inaugurated with his Incarnation and victory over sin and death.

For this reason, Advent is synonymous with hope: not the vain waiting for a faceless god, but concrete and certain trust in the return of Him who has already visited us, of the “Spouse” who with his blood has sealed with humanity a pact that is an eternal covenant. It is a hope that stimulates vigilance, the characteristic virtue of this special liturgical season. Vigilance in prayer, fostered by a loving expectation; vigilance in the dynamics of concrete charity, aware that the Kingdom of God comes close whenever men learn to live as brothers.

Blessed John Paul II
Angelus, Sunday, 2 December 2001

In praying for the dead, the Church above all contemplates the mystery of the Resurrection of Christ, who obtains salvation and eternal life for us through his Cross.

Thus with St Odilo we can ceaselessly repeat: “The Cross is my refuge, my way and my life…. The Cross is my invincible weapon. The Cross repels all evil The Cross dispels the darkness”. The Lord’s Cross reminds us that all life is illumined by the light of Easter and that no situation is totally lost, for Christ conquered death and opened the way for us to true life. Redemption “is brought about in the sacrifice of Christ, by which man redeems the debt of sin and is reconciled to God”.

Our hope is founded on Christ’s sacrifice. His Resurrection inaugurates the “end of the times”. The belief in eternal life which we profess in the Creed is an invitation to the joyful hope of seeing God face to face. To believe in the resurrection of the flesh is to recognize that there is a final end, an ultimate goal for all human life, “which so satisfies man’s appetite that nothing else is left for him to desire”.

This same desire is wonderfully expressed by St Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you”. Thus, we are all called to live with Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, and to contemplate the Holy Trinity, for “God is the principal object of Christian hope”; we can say with Job: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed then from my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold and not another”.

Let us also remember that the Mystical Body of Christ is waiting to be reunited at the end of history, when all its members will be in perfect beatitude and God will be all in all. In fact, the Church hopes for the eternal salvation of all her children and of all mankind.

“We believe that the Church is necessary to salvation, for Christ is the one mediator and way of salvation and he becomes present to us in his Body which is the Church, but the divine design of salvation embraces all men. Those indeed who are in ignorance of Christ’s Gospel and of his Church through no fault of their own, who search for God in sincerity of heart, and who, acting according to conscience, strive under the influence of grace to fulfil his will, belong to his people, even though in a way we cannot see, and can obtain eternal salvation. Their number is known only to God” (Paul VI).

While waiting for death to be overcome once and for all, “some of the disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory”, contemplating the Trinity in full light. Joined to the merits of the saints, our fraternal prayer comes to the aid of those who await the beatific vision.

Intercession for the dead, just as the life of those living according to the divine commandments, obtains the merits that serve the full attainment of salvation. It is an expression of the fraternal charity of the one family of God, by which “we are faithful to the Church’s deepest vocation” (Lumen gentium): “to save souls who will love God eternally” (Therese of Lisieux). For the souls in purgatory, waiting for eternal happiness and for meeting the Beloved is a source of suffering, because of the punishment due to sin which separates them from God. But there is also the certitude that once the time of purification is over, the soul will go to meet the One it desires.

an excerpt from Message For Millenium of All Souls’ Day by Pope John Paul II

To know what is the way to holiness, we must go with the Apostles up the mount of the Beatitudes to draw near to Jesus and listen to the words of life that come from his lips. Today too he says to us again:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! The divine Teacher proclaims “blessed” and, we could say, “canonizes” first of all the poor in spirit, that is, those whose heart is free of prejudices and conditionings, and who are therefore totally disposed to the divine will. Their total and trusting fidelity to God presupposes renunciation and consistent self-detachment.

Blessed are those who mourn! This is the blessedness not only of those who suffer from the many misfortunes that belong to the mortal human condition, but also those who courageously accept the sufferings that result from the sincere profession of Gospel morality.

Blessed are the pure in heart! He proclaims blessed those who are not content with outward or ritual purity, but seek that absolute inner rectitude which excludes all deceit and duplicity.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness! Human righteousness is already a very lofty goal, which ennobles the heart of whoever pursues it, but Jesus is thinking of that greater righteousness which lies in seeking God’s saving will: blessed above all are those who hunger and thirst for this righteousness. For Jesus says: “He who does the will of my Father who is in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 7: 21).

Blessed are the merciful! Happy are those who overcome their hardness of heart and indifference, to recognize in practice the primacy of compassionate love, following the example of the Good Samaritan and, in the last analysis, of the Father “rich in mercy” (Eph 2: 4).

Blessed are the peacemakers! Peace, the sum of all messianic blessings, is a demanding task. In a world marked by tremendous antagonisms and barriers, fraternal harmony inspired by love and sharing must be promoted by overcoming hostilities and conflicts. Blessed are those who dedicate themselves to this most noble endeavour!

The saints took these words of Jesus seriously. They believed that they would find “happiness” by putting them into practice in their lives. And they realized their truth in everyday experience: despite their trials, moments of darkness and failures, they already tasted here below the deep joy of communion with Christ. In him they discovered the initial seed, already present in time, of the future glory of God’s kingdom.

an excerpt from a homily by John Paul II, 1 November 2000